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What does it take for Ethiopia to be food Self Sufficient?

By Lema - Lemam2010@gmail.comTigrai Online Jan. 31, 2013

We have been told the major priority for EPRDF led government is none other than fighting/eradicating poverty. This is a great idea for a country that has suffered for long because of drought and food insecurity. The government’s effort to maximize agricultural production through package of programs provided to individual farmers is very well along the right path in this respect. Yet we do not seem to be getting closer to the required level of production in terms of supplying enough food grains to the ever increasing population size. Individual farmers may have increased agricultural productivity in the last decade or so but the level of increased production is far below satisfying the local market. The price of goods particularly those crucial for daily consumption (wheat, teff, oil etc) are increasing from time to time. The life of the ‘middle income’ earners and the largest section of the urban population is still in misery.

What should be done then to alleviate the problem? The government has clearly stated it is a developmental state, where the role of the state is to ensure state led capitalism. This is a form of government that endorses the participation of private investors and capitalists but the role of the state is much more than that. The state engages in crucial economic sectors to address supply problems. We have been told that foreign and private investors in Ethiopia are on the rise from time to time. We have read international media criticisms against the government that blame government efforts to facilitate large scale investment as ‘land grab’. Government on the other hand reacted stating that it is the unused land that is allocated to such large scale investment projects. Closer look at these large scale investments do seem to hint that many of them target international markets. In this respect they could be good sources of much needed hard currency but it is not clear if such large scale investments will address domestic market demands. One way to benefit from such large scale agricultural investment is to require such companies that certain percentage of their production should be available for local markets. To my knowledge there is no such requirement in most of the large scale investments that are currently operating in Ethiopia. As such there is a weak form of institutional and legal framework that monitors the operation and performance of such projects. We have read news already that some were even engaged in activities outside of their main activities for years. I know of a company that cleared a large forest land, sold the coal for five years and when the grace period was over it liquidated itself and disappeared from the scene.

Another possibility for boosting agricultural productivity and to contain the ever increasing price of grains and oil related products is for the government to engage itself in large scale investments in the unused lands available in the country. Alongside the package of incentives and technologies provided to individual farmers at the house hold level, the government should use some of its giant companies (we know the four members of EPRDF have affiliated companies that are engaged in commercial activities) to engage in large scale agricultural investment alone or together with domestic and or international companies that target mainly local markets. I think this is the best way to address the shortage of grains and the ever increasing price of goods. Once these kinds of projects are materialized, the government could then free the hard currency used to purchase wheat flavour and oil from the international market. By doing so we can ensure food self sufficiency and use our hard currency for some other useful purposes. In the long run if this project succeeds it can be a model for some other African countries and the government could slowly withdraw from such activity as private investors would slowly take over the responsibility once they realize that the sector is productive and the infrastructure is ready. That is where the concept of developmental state becomes more concrete in terms of addressing crucial gaps in the market.